Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to help Department of State employees understand which agency records must be maintained and for how long. The following schedules allow for removal of records after a specific timeframe and, at the same time, ensure that we retain the most-important documents and make certain we are securely and properly maintaining our data. This policy gives guidance on retention of some of the more-common documents and records, such as email, that you may encounter in your dayto-day duties.

Authority

Colorado State Archives is authorized to prepare record-retention schedules for all state agencies. To that end, the Archivist has prepared some general retention schedules that mostly cover permanently valuable records. For records that are not in the Archivist’s schedule, each state agency must develop its own retention schedule.

Applicability

This record-retention schedule and policy applies to all Department of State employees, temporary employees, and interns, regardless of whether the individual was the author or recipient of the record. This Policy also applies to contractors with the Department of State who are bound by agreement to adhere to state record retention policies when maintaining state records.

This policy also applies to all records, regardless of their physical form. That is, it doesn’t matter whether the record consists of a physical piece of paper, a post-it note, a notebook or other bound book, or an electronic message.

Please be aware that state law requires that some documents be retained for certain periods of time. For example, documents such as office policies and procedures, purchase orders, rulemaking files, official letters, and others must be retained for a defined period of time. The State Archivist Schedule defines these documents and their retention periods in detail. The Archivist’s full schedule may be found here: https://archives.colorado.gov/records-management/state-agency-records-management.

Certain documents are retained by the Department of State for other specified timeframes, either by law or by practice, and those are included as addendums to this Policy. Please note that all records provided pursuant to the Colorado Public Records Act are retained for a period of two (2) years.

In addition to the schedule, any items subject to a litigation hold as part of an ongoing litigation must be retained until the litigation hold is formally removed. If you have any questions about a litigation hold, please ask the Legal and Policy Team.

If you have a question about a record that you do not see in the schedule, please ask the Legal and Policy Team, as that record may still be represented in the State Archivist’s schedule.

Just as it is important to retain valuable records, it is equally important to delete unimportant records. Doing so ensures that our electronic message systems and our office remain nimble and responsive to open records requests, and helps reduce data storage costs. Failure to delete nonessential records results in time-consuming and burdensome searches when we receive a records request or when we are involved in litigation. If it appears to the IT division that an employee is not adhering to deletion or retention schedules in this policy, additional steps may be taken to bring the employee’s records into compliance.

Electronic messages

Electronic messages are messages that relay information among users electronically. Email, instant messaging, notes, tasks, and meeting invites are all forms of electronic messages. All email sent or received through the Department of State’s internal email system is property of the Department. Email messages may be considered “public record” under section 24-72-203, C.R.S., and subject to public disclosure. Please be aware that the content and tone of a message could be made public and reflects on the Department of State and the Secretary of State.

Employees are responsible for managing their office email in accordance with this policy. Both the author and the recipient of the electronic message must use their best judgment in determining whether to keep or archive an electronic record and, if it should be kept, which employee should retain it.

Email deletion:

• All email items in an individual user’s mailbox older than 45 days, other than those stored in a designated subfolder as indicated below, will be automatically moved to the “Deleted Items” folder on a daily basis. This policy applies to the mailbox and any subfolders of the mailbox including sent items, subfolders, drafts, etc. This policy does not apply to non-email items such as calendar, contact, or task items.
• Items that are deleted manually are moved to the “Deleted Items” folder under the inbox.
• On a daily basis, all items older than one day in the “Deleted Items” folder will be automatically deleted. One day after this automatic deletion, these items are not recoverable by any means.
• Items in a non-user mailbox (e.g., business@coloradosos.gov, elections@coloradosos.gov) may have a longer retention period, but public mailboxes should be managed by the designated custodian to retain electronic messages only as allowed under our office’s retention schedule.
• Employees are encouraged to use the Archive function in Outlook to preserve emails.
• The use of PST files as a storage method is permitted, however PST files must be stored on a user’s “H” drive and employees must dedicate time and effort to reviewing PST content for archive or removal as outlined in this policy.

Email retention:

Electronic messages that must be archived can be stored in a designated Outlook archive subfolder, which is not subject to the 45-day retention rule that applies to the Inbox and other subfolders. Emails of a non-essential nature should be moved to the deleted folder sooner than 45 days.

The following guidelines should be observed when classifying email for retention or deletion:

1. Transient email. Email that is personal in nature, of fleeting or no value, or otherwise not created or received in the course of state business should be deleted after reading.
2. Intermediate administrative email. Email that serves some state-related purpose, but also is transitory or of time-limited value because it serves a time-defined administrative purpose, should generally be deleted within 45 days or sooner if it no longer has value.
3. Long-term retention email. This is email that are required under state law for retention or that necessitate long-term future use. If it is necessary to retain an email in this category for longer than 45 days, it should be moved to the designated archive subfolder of the Inbox. You must review archive folders on a monthly basis to remove correspondence that no longer complies with this purpose.

Any email that is the subject of a public records request must be preserved from the date of the request regardless of any maintenance, retention, or deletion policy.

Enforcement of email retention for a separating permanent employee:Emails in a separating employee’s email mailbox will be deleted upon the employee’s separation from employment after review and preservation of any materials as required under this policy or any applicable litigation holds.

Business and licensing division addendum

Elections addendum